A Better Place
by Owls The Sailor
Summary: This is the story of a girl who's gone missing, of a lost art, of true love, of hatred. This story is truly whatever you make of it. One thing is for sure about this tale, Kennedy Macer will be back. [No longer Accepting OCs] {From Next Chapter: "The room looked and like on of the crime scenes in the muggle TV shows, it was eerie."}
1. A Beginning, Again

**Prologue**

 _July 30_

 _ **SALEM WITCH ACADEMY OPENS TO MALE STUDENTS**_

 _By: Georgia P. Jameson_

 _In the nearly six hundred years of the school's operation, the Salem Witch Academy is finally opening its doors to wizards. The now co-ed academy is known as the best wizarding school in the Americas. However, its curriculum was too varied to compare to the other schools, as students were allowed to choose a 'major' of sorts and pursue classes/field work in._

 _The Department for the American Witch and Wizard has decided that such different curriculum was not good for the students (they weren't learning many basic spells), so the school has been re-vamped. It still has its field work classes that truly show students the jobs in the wizarding community, but now students are required to take more than just a year of preliminary defense, charms, herbology etc. classes._

 _Along with these changes the Department also decided that the best (and only) school for magical arts in the United States of America should be for wizards as well._

 _The Campus of the school is also moving from Salem, Massachusetts to an unknown location here in the USA for security purposes. To conclude, the Salem Witch Academy probably is going to have to change their name to just The Academy._

 **OoOoO**

People were just freaking out about it too much, Kenedy thought. She was sitting at the counter of her dorm in Salem. She had known for a few months that change was happening and that it involved boys and also why her school supplies letter, arriving via special delivery cat, was from the Academy of the American Witch and Wizard.

Was she upset? Yes, but change was a good thing, her parents had always said. Then again, change had killed them. Maybe it would get her too, after all, she was was more inclined to jump off roofs than other people.

Kenedy sighed and folded up the _Salem Times_ and picked up her empty cereal bowl, placing it in the sink where other dishes were washing themselves.

At the moment, her dorm in the large cottage– that was even larger on the inside– was empty of the girls that typically lived there, due to it being Summer. So, Kennedy had the whole two stories to herself. She loved it– being alone. She loved the silence, the normality of it all. She missed her friends though and talking to someone who wasn't herself, but it was a perfect thing to have silence.

She walked over to the bookcase, the one to the side of the couch that was close to the stairs to the second floor and the bedrooms. It was near a window that she charmed to have a window seat that looked out over a new view every day. It struck her then, that a lot was changing. She was no longer going to have her, window seat, not at the new Academy. The silence certainly would be gone, and who was to ensure that she would be able to stay over the summer and do field work?

The tears started; Kennedy wasn't really a big crier, but she did have tears on occasion. Tears that just kept going and going until she was in her bed late at night still clutching the book she had somehow in the chaos of her mind had collected off the shelf. The tears had begun to stop when she felt something burn against her chest. The book was hot in her hands, not searing but still it wasn't normal for a book to suddenly be hot.

Kennedy held up the thing. It was really warm, but the center emblem was red hot: metal, she cast quick cooling charm and an unsticking charm (Kennedy really loved charms). Soon, the emblem was off the book and on the ground.

At first glance, she had thought it had been one of the odd books that appeared on the shelf, when someone wanted something interesting to read or needed help with an especially tricky bit of homework (she had developed the charm herself as her field project her fifth year). But, the book was even more different than anything in her personal collection or anything that the library's arsenal had (okay, so her spell had limits alright basically all spells do). Mostly, it looked dangerous… enticing

The leather on the cover was molded into intricate designs which looked runic and almost– this coming from the girl who knew almost nothing about the magical world outside of charms and charm making– dark. A lump formed in her throat, a distance memory she had tried for so many years to put down, started to come back into her thoughts.

A few years back, when she was much younger, before the Academy, before her parents died, the dark arts had started to make a resurgence. An extremist group of sorts was running rampant attacking muggles and killing many of innocents in the process. Before that though, the group represented the good of the dark arts. The only spells that were truly dark about the dark arts were the Unforgivables, and the group never used the Unforgivable group wanted to show the wizarding world what the dark arts could do to help.

They fought crime, helped the homeless, gave people new meaning. They were intensely motivating and promised the freedom of balance. But it came at a price.

The dark arts were considered dark for a reason– It rotted their minds and turned them into nearly thoughtless killers. They believed inforced the inferiority of muggles because they could see nothing but their lack of magic. It was scary for a young girl to see such things, things that brought people to try to murder their own families, their own children...

The tears came again to her eyes. Kennedy recognized the rune, it was dark: dark and familiar.

She brought the seal to her lips and kissed it implanting the keeping charm that made sure the seal would go to no one else if she were to ever misplace it (a handy thing she developed her fourth year). She blinked away the tears, and she saw them, dark and dilated in the mirror across from her bed.

There was too much happening and yet too little. There was no balance in the world. She was one of very few people who could stop it.

 **OoOoO**

 _July 31_

 _ **SALEM ACADEMY STUDENT GOES MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD**_

 _By: Georgia P. Jameson_

 _Kennedy Macer, witch at Salem Academy, has gone missing. The orphan is said to be dead, blood found trailing from her dorm. However there is no evidence to confirm if it was infact murder as no body has been found. Many are speculating that the school's history of the Dark Arts could be at play._

 _We all hope for the sake of the Department's efforts that the school will remain the epitome of good conduct._

* * *

 **A/N:** Okay guys, this is the dealio. I have given a scenario-the Academy is open to guys now, Kennedy's gone missing. I explained the workings of the school a bit. I have a character for you guys to look at, so... now its time for OC sheets! I am really excited about this. I haven't done an SYOC in a while and the last one was for another fandom. I've also found that SYOC's aren't as common in HP, but I don't care.

 _(If you happen to be looking for some fics like this (not the same) check out my friend who I used to beta for. Her story, Capet Academy for Magic, is about an American magic school, however she isn't accepting OCs anymore.)_

Edit: **OCs submission overflowing! Cannot accept anymore! (If for some reason you'd like to see the OC sheet, I can get it to you, but I can't accept anymore, there are like thirteen I have to include.)**

Hoots,

Owls

* * *

 **Next Time:** _"Anette!" Kate called. "The boys are here!" She screamed overly dramatically then something hard thumped against the floor._


	2. The Woman In Black

**One**

Janette had a headache, she realised, opening her eyes to the unfamiliar, blank ceiling, in the unfamiliar, mostly blank room, in the definitely unfamiliar new campus of the Academy. There was a fan on the ceiling spinning lazily. She could barely see it in the freshly-baked morning light that was just a little too crisp but not so bright as to completely blind her.

The relentless motion of the spinning blades hurt her fragile morning mind ,and she groaned, turning to face the lone window in her small bedroom. The view from the window was a story up in the new co-ed, seventh-year student dorm building and overlooked the courtyard at the center of the upperclassmen dorm buildings (upperclassmen being fifth through tenth year students). From the loud spikes of laughter she guess people were already awake, and a clock on her nightstand said it was eight thirty-two. Her first class started at ten that day, but she wanted to start her first day back at the forge, not in her groggy nearly-dead state.

She groped for her wand on the nightstand, then rolled out of bed. Quickly she opened the curtain that hide the sun from the inner workings of the den, Janette glared at the fountain at the center of the courtyard and the people happily milling about the picnic tables set up for recreation. There were only girls, she noted– still only girls. That meant that the boys had yet to be given the 'all clear' after Kennedy Macer's disappearance. People were so sensitive to things that were barely a blip on the radar, not that she wanted to call Kennedy a blip, but how could one girl disappearing throw off the best wizarding school on the continent for an entire week?

The black haired girl closed the curtain. She wasn't interested in that moment in looking outside or contemplating Kennedy's disappearance; however, she was interested in sitting around and mopping. Unfortunately, the two other seventh year girls sharing a common quarters with her had other ideas.

"Annie!" The lilting, almost delicate voice of Teddy Montgomery filtered into her room through her door. Teddy was laughing and another girl's voice soon joined hers, Kate Bishop. The two had been best friends for as long as anyone could remember, and they had been rooming with Jannette since fifth year.

They were two very different girls. Teddy was blonde, her back was almost always straight, and even if she hated to admit it, she had a tendency to stick to the rules. Kate though was truly rebellious, she was slightly violent, stubborn, didn't care what most people thought, and had dark red hair.

"Anette!" Kate called. "The boys are here!" She screamed overly dramatically, then Janette heard something hard thumped against the floor.

She cracked her blank door open to see the government issue living area (equipped with sofa, armchairs, coffee table, two desks, and a book shelf). Kate was on the floor her legs on the couch but her upper body sliding under the coffee table. She was laughing and Teddy was leaning on the side of an armchair trying to catch her breathe, probably laughing as well.

Janette pulled a rubber band off her wrist, smiling down at her enchanted bracelet for a moment (it was a nice shade of yellow that morning, sunny with a some clouds later on). She started to braid her hair, rolling her eyes at the people she could more than likely call friends.

"So they think that Kennedy's not a threat anymore?" Janette asked, her hands expertly twisting her hair into a simple braid.

"I guess so," Teddy wheezed, a grin growing on her flawless face as she looked at Kate who had seemed to fallen asleep underneath the coffee table.

"What time did you guys wake up at?"

"Four."

"Why?"

"To get a jumpstart on the year," Kate said, doing some gymno-acrobatics to get her head on the couch instead of her legs.

"Yeah, this year our dueling line-up is going to slay," Teddy grinned, reaching down to bump fists with Kate.

"You guys win every year, like, its not even fair." Janette finished her braid.

"We know," Teddy chimed, "But giving up is not either of our mottos, especially with the new competition."

"Boys," Kate sighed, her eyes dreamy.

"Have you seen them already?" She raised a brow at the usually dry-humored Kate.

Teddy began: "No, we came up to get you first-"

"Since we thought you might have died-"

Teddy shot her a glare. "Kate thought that. _I_ thought that maybe you would want to know what was going on and may-be get some decent food from the cafe, which is now open and smells _delicious_."

"Really?" Janette grinned; they had only been eating the merger microwavable dinners and cereal and other quick snacks meant for days where they stayed in not for a week's long of sustenance.

"Yes!" Kate screamed, "so get dressed! I want to see some boys!" She began to usher Janette into her room,to get out of her frumpy pajamas and into her new Academy uniform that both she and Teddy were wearing.

"Yeah and I wanna get some food!" Teddy shouted from the living room.

 **OoOoO**

 **In Room 3018 - J. Aslan, M. Chin, D. Bishop**

The room was on the third floor, ninth to the right from the the end of the hall. It had three beds lined up against the wall and three desks, three dressers, and a small bathroom with three sets of toiletries. On the beds sat three girls, first years. They all had older siblings coming to the school, they had all heard things about what could happen to students there, and what had happened.

They weren't scared. It went against who they were to be scared, but they were nervous. This was a real school magic, where there was real danger. Not that anything would be able to get to them in the middle of nowhere, where not a single student knew the location.

"Hi," one said to the others, which started the conservation, the friendship that might last until their final days. They talked for a time about anything their small minds could hold onto: one girl's poster of a boy band, another's necklace, the other's violin. They didn't have much in common, but that first string of friend hung tightly between them.

Then, there came a knock at the window, the window that didn't over look the path between the academic halls and other common areas to the upperclassmen courtyard, the window that wasn't looking over at the third and fourth year dorm building, the one facing the lake.

They didn't even scream, but somehow, by the end of the day, the girls were huddled shivering underneath their blanket, muttering unintelligible things and fiddling with their wands or hair or just simply crying about a woman in black.

 **OoOoO**

Walking around the quad with Teddy and Kate was murder for Janette's not-so dearly departed headache, not to mention that she didn't like to talk in large groups of people, as in ten to fifteen large which it sometimes got to with Teddy and Kate.

Contrary to popular belief, Teddy Montgomery, resident rich girl, was not as bitchy as she seemed. And Kate wasn't a total airhead, but why anyone thought that of the auburn haired girl was beyond her. Infact they were both nice, caring people, who just were stereotyped based on their appearance and extreme actions...Janette shook her head, she was thinking too much about everything.

They were passing the underclassmen dorms when Kate stopped, and the black haired girl came out of her thoughts to notice that it was just the three of them.

"She hasn't seen her little sister since she got here," Teddy explained to Janette who was watching Kate suspiciously.

"They had a fight before they took the portkey, and well she doesn't want her little sister to hate her."

"Just tell the world all my secrets, why don't you Theodora," Kate growled stomping off towards the building. Janette glanced at Teddy who was bright pink with either anger or embarrassment at use of her given name.

"Hey I think I see one of the guys," Janette attempted to distract Teddy from fighting with her best friend (such fights had never ended well in the past). However the blonde girl's eyes were elsewhere.

Teddy seem to come out of some sort of stupor."What?" Janette turned quickly to see a blonde haired boy in a group of girls some guys trailing behind with sceptical looks.

"A boy," Janette repeated, motioning to the guy she saw. He was tall and built with dark hair and tanned skin. He was talking to one of the professors, someone new who Janette didn't recognize, but seemed to be wearing the badge labeling her as the RA for that dorm.

"Yeah," Teddy nodded slowly, her eyes looking him up and down.

"They seem to be argueing, should we maybe go help him,"Janette suggested, though she dearly hoped that Teddy's mind was still on food.

"Yeah…" Teddy agreed and started to move through the crowd toward, the boy. It sparked in Janette's mind suddenly, it was a look she had seen on Kennedy's face a few time too, the look of finding the perfect adventure, or in Teddy's case, rebellion.

"Teddy, maybe this wasn't such a good idea-" It was too late.

"Um, hi, I'm-"

"Theodora Montgomery," the professor drawled, she looked young, but everything else about her seemed to already be dead or dying.

"Yes…" She said with a strained smile. "But I'm just here to say hello to one of our new students." Her voice had dropped to a lower sultry tone. The guy though seemed to be too angry to care; Janette had never seen anger so pure before, that it blocked all his senses, even Teddy's best smile didn't get through to him.

The blonde looked frustrated as the dark-haired boy ignored her and glared at the professor.

"Please, just let me see my sister-"

"I'm sorry, I can't," the professor was speaking with a monotone, "No upperclassmen are allowed in the building until next week."

"That's stupid-" Teddy started.

"No, its a problem." Janette hissed under her breathe, touching Teddy's arms.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Kate's in there and a crowd is forming, not the good kind either." She pointed to the gathering group. Three girls came out followed by the senior school healer. They were wrapped in a blanket, eye wide. They had seen something no first year should have.

One of the girls was clinging to Kate. The boy beside them ran forward just as one of the first girl ran towards him. Janette and Teddy were pushed in by the crowd towards them.

Jannette managed to hear ever word the scared child uttered. "She made me write it, Leo, she told me to, she was really nice, but...but...Madi says it was bad. I did a bad thing, Leo." The girl started to cry, clinging to what Janette could only assume was her older brother.

"What do you think happened?" Teddy asked, her voice shook slightly in fear.

"I think…"Janete gulped. "I think Kennedy isn't as dead or as gone as people thought."

"As they hoped," Kate joined them again, her little sister Dinah Bishop, shivering next to her.

* * *

 **A/N:** This is Chapter One guys, chapter one of my first multi-chap in over a year. This is the first Chapter of a great adventure.

Exciting, huh.

Now I have to do some boring stuff that most of your won't be too interested. If any of you look at my other stuff, its written for challenges from Hogwarts House Challenges (if you happen to also like writing challenges for HP come check it out, there's a link on my bio).

And, Prompts:

[Dialogue] "I'm sorry, I can't." - from the quidditch pitch.

Word count: 1,902

OCs used this Chapter: 

Katlin 'Kate' Bishop - Kayla DeLana

Leonardo 'Leo' Aslan - W. R. Winters

Theodora 'Teddy' Montgomery - WaffleManiac

Janette McKenzie - Fryllabrille201

Minor Characters from - W. R. Winters, Kayla DeLana, and greenhood2596

Unnamed Blonde guy - snowwolf12132

As of posting this I still need, OCs specially male OCs I have like two guys to six girls. And that's find to have more girls, but I need more than two guys. That's just not enough to go around XP.

So anyways, don't forget to fav. follow and review (for people with OCs its a bit of a requirement...unless you PM me your thoughts)

Hoots,

Owls


	3. The First Day, Not the Last

**Two**

 **An Excerpt from A Brief History of the Dark Arts, Essay for History of Magic Course 608, Professor Anten,** by Finley Archer

"...So to say the least, the dark arts have been misunderstood throughout history, much like the barbaric treatment of wizards and witches in medieval times. The only way to stop ignorance is through education, and so, to conclude, this is a brief history– a brief education– on the darker arts of magic, to help prevent the ignorance."

 **OoOoO**

The history teacher looked up over her bifocals at the class of students writing and flipping through books. It was already the most boring class that the school had to offer, but she had given them the whole four hour class period to write a rough draft of their main research essay for that year– it almost made her grin watching the students' pained and bored expressions. However, in the first row there was a girl with a nervous frown. Miss Archer had already finished her essay, as always, and was waiting for the teacher to finish looking it over.

Ms. Anten had heard that Finley Archer was the smartest girl in her grade, and possibly the entire school, but nothing that the blonde had done in any of her classes proved that. Not to say that her research wasn't excellent and her writing incredible, but her subject matter was… not acceptable, it hadn't been for years.

"Ms. Archer," the old professor muttered, her wrinkling face and pigeon eyes hidden behind wispy gray hair. The class looked up– the boys being entirely new had no idea what was going on, but there was a murmur of soft laughter and flitting of rumors between the girls who had seen this routine many times before.

It was moments like this Ms. Anten didn't enjoy. It wasn't because Finley Archer stood before her nervously wringing her hands, completely in fear (she rather enjoyed that part) but because a student with so much potential was intimidated by her.

"Yes Ms. Anten?" Finley looked a little frightened, but still had walked up to the front of the class.

Ms. Anten frowned at her, the wrinkles in her face only adding to the effect of disapproval. "Do you know why I called you up here?"

"Was it my essay, Ms. Anten?"

The teacher looked at the handwritten masterpiece with her beady eyes enlarged by her glasses. "Yes, Miss Archer. You have yet again chosen an inappropriate subject."

"I'm sorry I'll rewrite it." She turned to go back to her seat.

"I haven't dismissed you yet."

Finley sighed and turned back around.

"Now, Ms. Archer, every year you have chosen inappropriate subject matter pertaining to the dark arts. You not only describing them, defending as well. I am very sorry but this trend cannot be dismissed. And this," she shook the paper. "This, is the last straw. It is grounds to say that you support the dark arts." The teacher licked her lips looking satisfied.

"Ms. Anten, it's only a rough draft. I wanted to present the new facts I had uncovered for the argument. I worked all summer; I thought you would appreciate the effort- "

"I didn't."

Finley was quiet.

"I do not appreciate any support of the genocidal ravings of the dark arts, do you understand?"

"Yes, Ms. Anten," her voice was soft and her words broken. Her hair was covering her eyes, but the old teacher swore that there may have been a sob in her voice.

"Now, I want you to-"

Finley dashed out to her seat, picking up her belongings.

"Miss Archer!" the old woman stood. Finley ran, towards the door, but tripped over a bag, landing beside a ginger girl. The other girl leaned over, glaring at Ms. Anten, and helped Finley with her things.

"You really are an idiot," she muttered to Finley.

"So what?" Finely said, frustratedly pushing a large book into her bag.

"They call you smart for some reason, how am I second to you?" The ginger girl handed her a few pens.

"I don't know, Kari," Finley muttered. "If I knew, maybe I wouldn't be an idiot."

"Well, it's all your fault. It always is." Her words were a little quieter and harder to hear by eavesdropper. THey seemed to carry a deeper meaning. Finley caught on, her face grew angry.

She stood up again, dusting off herself, leaving a book on the group. Kari picked it up, a journal of some sorts, and handed it up to Finely. The blonde grabbed it and dashed out of the room before Ms. Anten could stand.

"Someone stop her," Ms. Anten said in vain, standing from her desk.

"Ms. Anten, I'm finished," the ginger girl handed her paper over, neat and precise. "So I'm leaving." She walked out of the room, leaving her books.

"Miss Tryst! I have not dismissed you!"

 **OoOoO**

 **Room 3018 - J. Aslan, M. Chin, D. Bishop**

Fin creeped under the caution tape, her tears having faded away from her excursion in history class. Still, she clutched her mother's diary to her chest, it was too precious, too scared for her to leave behind and she almost had. She shook her head and focused on the task at hand.

Before her was what looked like one of the crime scenes she had read about during her hours of research on the influence of muggles on the dark arts and the mob mentality. There was chaos scattered across the floor, clothes, blankets, a chair. None of that interested her though. She turned to face the right wall, a large rune was there. Thick and light lines intertwined and created a familiar setting. Well, it would have been familiar had the rune been drawn on the floor. The location of the rune was the oddest part of the situation to Fin– not the fact that she was looking at a potential threat to the school's safety or a facet of the dark arts.

Since it hadn't been drawn on the floor, that meant it was a message not a spell. That or it was done badly.

Fin set her bag down, and held out her mother's diary flipping to the ending pages. Most of the book was full of her mother's memories, her times at Salem Academy, but for some reason at the very back was a guide to basic runes and rune casting. It had come in handy though, so she was still grateful to her.

Carefully she pulled on the back cover until the paper unfolded and revealed the inked runes. She wasn't good at this part, the translating. It was hard to differentiate the different parts and how the individual runes brought meaning to the spell or artwork, as it seemed in this case. However, she managed to pick out the main rune: young ones, youth, children, or something along those lines.

"You aren't one for dramatics, Fin, what's up?" Kari's voice came from behind her. Fin didn't turn to look at her. She sounded angry which meant that Fin would probably be in trouble later, but right now her concern was on the wall.

"I wanted to look at this," she motioned to the rune. "I can't read it though, but You can read it, Kari, please?" Fin pushed her mother's diary at her.

"No-"

"I know you're just as curious. It's a message, see," she motioned to the wall, "C'mon read it."

Kari sighed, and took the book. Her fingers skimmed delicately over the runes almost as if she were reading brail not the ink on the page, as if she weren't just seeing the runes but feeling them– their magic. It was deep in the bones of the school, in her mother's book.

"Do you think Ms. Anten actually thinks I support the Dark Arts?"

"Well you do-"

"But does she know?"

Kari looked over at her. "She's suspicious yeah, which makes you an even bigger idiot."

Fin let a silence set in after that. Kari still analyzing the runes with her fingers.

"I gave her the book."

"I figured."

"Was that bad?"

"We just have to hope that you didn't totally destroy everything."

Fin nodded slowly. "Right… well Kennedy still could be-"

"She isn't."

Kari looked up at the large rune circle, she reached her fingers out to the ink. Her hand against it showed just how large it was taking up the height of the wall and width.

"Let the children sleep, rid the demons, and give them good slumber." The ginger shoved the book at Fin's chest.

"What?" Finley quirked a brow at Kari.

The book dropped to the ground, and Kari headed to leave. "She was trying to cast a charm."

"On the wall? Kennedy isn't some kind of idiot." Fin picked up her things, trying to catch up to her friend, or the closest person to a friend she had.

"She isn't trained, Fin," Kari said accusingly.

"Well, we didn't exactly have the time to train her did we?" Fin struggled to keep up, hating the fact more than ever that she was short, and that her friend was the tall, slightly more athletic one.

"We could have."

"No, we couldn't have."

Kari turned to her. "What makes you say that?"

"We had to choose before they did."

Kari scowled and continued walking slower.

"There was no one else," Finley insisted.

"There was."

 **OoOoO**

 **Sunset**

The day had been long day. Classes just starting, and the pressure of the festival on her back. She stepped into the smithery and took a deep breath...she coughed. THere was ash in the air and metal bits. It sounded like someone was doing metal work as well.

Janette headed towards her workspace which was set up in the ring around the furnaces. People didn't use the furnaces that often, not back at Salem. Magicsmithing was more of a delicate art, but she imagined that the tesorone filled boy coming in would want to change that and make the mighty metal into mighty magic.

Janette rolled her eyes and set down her bag on her table which was sparse and clean from not being worked on before. It smelled fresh too, like chemicals (oddly muggle). She pulled out a large board from her bag, which didn't look like it could fit a board of that size inside of it.

A sign of about the same size as the board but slightly small, marked the workspace as belonging to her, Janette McKenzie. She took down the sign and replaced it with the rugged looking board.

The board changed from being blank to displaying. _Hello._

"Hey!" Janette smiled. The board had been her first big project, her fourth year when she started to truly feel the passion in magicsmithing. "What projects do I have to work on today?"

 _Assignment from Mr. Jackson… 5 small projects, 3 medium, or 1 large for the Fall Festival. Must be cleared with me first._

Janette sighed and turned bag to her bag pulling out a notebook and started to flip through it looking for a new design. She had hit a slump over the summer and thought that when she got back, she would be able to talk to Kennedy and get some inspiration. Her plan hadn't exactly worked out.

She had settled on a new pen design when she noticed the clashing of metal on metal she had heard earlier had stopped. The furnace was still on though, she could still see the glow around the corner. She put down her notebook. "Mark my next project as Sparkling Pen." The sign filled with the words before it changed to _Janette McKenzie_ , as she left the workspace.

The furnace was unmanned as she had expected, still burning bright. Even worse as she approached, the floor was covered in broken glass. There was still metal in the coals. A twisted piece of metal, braid almost. She took it out of the fire and removed it from the rest of the metal, it was a small piece. She put the scrap in a large pile by the door.

The glass on the floor seemed to have some from the workspace across the way. Leonardo Aslan. "Boy," she muttered and rolled her eyes.

There seemed to be a line of small glass features, like bells but with a place to string a chain twisted at the top. It looked like a very delicate job. Janette put down the braided bit of metal down beside the bells.

The glass was really quite beautiful, reflecting the light of the furnace like a sunset on the horizon. She picked up one of the piece. It was well balanced, very clear. It didn't look like an amateur's work. She furrowed her brow; it wasn't enchanted, completely muggle.

"What are you doing?"

Janette yelped and nearly dropped the glass. "I'm just admiring this. Its very well done." She carefully placed the glass done by the metal and other glass bells and turned around.

A boy was standing behind her a towel over his shoulder, he wasn't wearing a shirt, his flesh pocked and scratches and a few cuts on his torso. "Oh my god! You weren't wearing a shirt the entire time you were working?"

The boys face was masked by shadows cast by the fire, but still she could tell he looked confused. "Is that wrong- you're right I should put on a shirt."

"No!" He was probably giving her an odd look. "I mean you can't. It would hurt, you definitely have burns all over your… chest."

"I'm big boy, I can handle myself." He deadpanned and walked past her.

"Obviously not, you left a furnace burning."

"Why are you even here? It's getting late." He had his back to her, the cuts were much deeper on his back, the scars of some very old.

"I could ask you the same question." She crossed her arms. He put his shirt on.

"I like working at night."

"Maybe I do too." Janette countered. She was able to see his face now that he wasn't backlit by a blazing fire; he was giving her a 'get the hell away' look.

After she didn't move, he straightened up and looked down at her, his eyes hooded. It was very intimidating. "I highly doubt that a kiss-up like you enjoys working at night when no one can see that you are the best and impress the teacher."

"You don't even know me."

"I don't need to, you have that look."

"I do not."

"Yes you do. You look like your entire existence depends on you succeeding because of some standard set by the mainstream."

Janette worked her jaw. "Well, you have look too. You look like a reckless jerk who won't accept help from anyone." She turned on her heel and marched away. "Go to the nurse after you leave, you don't need more scars."

She angrily started to shove her things back into her bag, the sign cheerily saying _Hello_ and announcing her next project. Her anger continued into the cool evening air the sun almost set and the full moon heading up the sky. Janette didn't even take the time to admire it and think of all the memories of the old full moons at Salem with Kennedy and at home with her parents, telling them about magic. She didn't even care, for the first time since she had been back, that she was alone.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hoots me Owlie friends, what is up? I hope everyone had a good holiday break. I know mine was fun, I've been doing a lot of binge watching. I'm afraid that could be why this chapter hasn't come until then. I've also been working on some other stuff for the writing challenges I do, but it's nice to get back to this.

My style has changed a tad too. I think it makes it a little clearer and moves a bit better. I hope that you all enjoy though (there are definitely some grammar errors in there. A bet a lot, but I'm more focused on the story right now).

Anywho let's get into the boring stuff I must include.

Prompts:

[dialogue] "It's your fault. It always is." - Qudditch Pitch

[word] paper - Drabble Club

Word Count: 2,579 (longer than last chapter whoop!)

OCs Used this Chapter:

Finely Archer - WaffeManiac

Kari Tryst - CrucioHime

Janette McKenzie- Fryllabrille201

Leo Aslan - W.R. Winters

Next chapter is going to introduce a bit more of the OCs but the full cast might not be in the story until Chapter five, possibly. It could be as early as Chapter 4.

Hoots, Owls ;)

P.S. Don't forget to review, fav, and follow.


End file.
